The Anthony Weiner case is grossly annoying for many reasons — first, of course, because Weiner himself is so annoying. He’s disclosed such a natural, startling talent for bared-faced lying, he’s bound to be a contender for the world championship in the middleweight liar division or wherever he chooses to compete.
Of course we all know that e-mail and related technologies are treacherous and slippery. They sucker you into saying things you regret because they make words so utterly cheap — no need to hear, much less face the people you’re writing to — that they’re disorienting. In the Cybersphere you experience a sort of intellectual weightlessness, as if you were speaking and trying to control the loudness and tone of your voice without being able to hear yourself. I’ve used e-mail nearly every day since the early 1980s, and I’ve sent dozens (maybe hundreds) of e-mails over the years that I’ve regretted, usually because I said something too sharp or harsh or abrupt. I’ve been on my guard for many years now, and I still make mistakes.
Children who have grown up with the technology will find it easier to modulate their tone correctly — or will give up and modulate society’s tone downward instead, to allow for increased harshness, tactlessness, and thoughtlessness in communication. In the interim, we might all cut each other a little slack.
Which brings me back to Weiner. Weiner didn’t commit adultery or anything near adultery. He committed tasteless stupidity, and there’s no law against that. When reporters first asked him about the expose reports, he should have said “Butt out.”
The biggest offense in this case is the dirtying of the public airwaves and news-waves with ugly, trivial junk; it’s an offense like the one that used to be popular a generation ago with “urban youths,” who would carry around giant boom boxes and play music (or whatever it was) at deafening volumes.
For my part I couldn’t care less what sort of pictures or messages Weiner has been sending around the Net, and it’s an imposition to be required to care; to be unable to avoid the topic. I find that I have no interest in Congressman Anthony Weiner’s sex life or virtual sex life whatsoever. And I’ve heard enough tearful on-camera contrition to last me the rest of my life. I don’t want to hear Weiner’s apology. It’s got nothing to do with me, tells me nothing I want to know; the cable news media, conservative and liberal, would do the public a favor if they would agreed to a blanket tearful-apologies ban effective this instant. And in the future, let Weiner and everyone else who has done some trivial stupid thing that no one actually gives a damn about keep his apologies to himself.
— David Gelernter is author, most recently, of Judaism: A Way of Being.
Amen. Weiner is a clown. That's all. To bad the clown is a Congressman. He's still just a clown.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWiener insulted and slandered Andrew Breitbart. That was not necessary and may even be cause for legal action. But more importantly, Weiner set himself up to be potentially blackmailed, which meant that he could potentially be persuaded to: (1) vote or legislate in a manner that he sincerely believed was wrong for America; or even (2) reveal national security secrets to hostile powers, all in order to avoid having his dirty secrets revealed. Those are serious matters. The sex stuff itself is actually of minimal importance and merely reveals that he is a deeply dishonorable man.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse+1 - absolutely correct.
The rest of you (OP included) need to re-read this to understand just why this is important...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf a congressman is routinely sending photos of his tumescent member to young women on the internet that's something that seems not an entirely irrelevant piece of information for voters. Apparently Gelernter feels such an abstract quality as "character" is not an important quality in a politician, but some will disagree, even in these days.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you!! Weiner was a clown in the political arena before this story, and remains so. Partisan hacks who defended him and deflected blame are still partisan hacks. But Tony the person, his family and friends have now been the subjects of a senseless spectacle.
The only joy I got out of this story was exposing the unquestionable and unquestioning hypocricy of the MSM to a few more young minds.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCharacter counts. An individual who cannot be trusted - on so many levels - should not have the keys to our tax dollars, our national security, our future, etc.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI see your point, but remember, this isn't a point that Weiner made. His position clearly was that it did matter. It mattered enough to lie about. It mattered enough to slander Breitbart over.
It's like everything else, David. The cover-up is the problem. If he'd simply started out by refusing to talk about it and saying if he had to explain himself to anyone, it would be to his wife, in private - then fine. But that's not what he did.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWith respect, Mr. Galernter is missing the significant part of the Weiner story -- his bald faced lying and the liberal media's attempt to assist him in getting away with those lies.
The fact that he lied about sex related matters made the story more entertaining, but the subject of the lies was almost irrelevant (and better that it was not about an issue of national importance). The significant issue was what the lying said about an important and very prominent member of the democratic team, and by extension other democrats (Wasserman repeating like a robot that it was a "personal matter") and the media. And arguably, about politicians in general, although it seems unfair to tar republicans with Weiners extraordinary lies.
On a related issue, the fact that Clinton was successful in using a bald faced finger in our face lie to keep his job was an awful event in the history of our country and the effect on our society. It is hard to imagine a president delivering a worse message to the people and culture of this country. And again, it reflected very badly upon the democrats who allowed him to do so for purely short term political reasons. They did not have to wisdom to see how that hurt our country or the sense to realize that having Clinton resign and Gore become president would not have been damaging to the democratic party and probably would have helped both the party and the country.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Of course we all know that e-mail and related technologies are treacherous and slippery."
What utter BS. It isn't the email or related technologies that are treacherous, it's you, the user. Character flaws aren't hidden and unavailable until we switch on an electronic device. Blaming the technology that delivers the offensive actions or behaviors is the worst sort of justification.
Email, twitter, facebook, etc., these are all tools, like a hammer or a wheelbarrow. A wheelbarrow - depending on the nature of its user - may be used to haul food to the hungry or bodies from the gas chambers. The wheelbarrow itself earns neither credit nor blame.
America's collective moral compass is slipping away, enabled by this sort of self-justifying thinking.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Hawkins, You should be writing columns! Excellent and succinct points!!! Liars can't be trusted, it's really that simple. They can't be trusted by friends and family and they can't be trusted in public office. To quote George Washington. "I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUnless the archive stats are wrong it looks like Mr. Gelernter hasn't posted anything here since 2003. Interesting choice of subject matter to bring him back to the fold. You really believe this is just "a trivial stupid thing" done on the taxpayers dime? Just how far do we have to define deviancy down?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNothing could be more trivial than this wasted post on NRO. "Nothing to add" shouldn't consume so much space.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I couldn’t care less...and it’s an imposition to be required to care; to be unable to avoid the topic."
That's exactly how I feel about royal weddings and Donald Trump, but I don't think they'll take them off the news anytime soon just to avoid imposing on me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWelcome back, Mr. Gelernter. I hope we will see your byline more often in the future.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...Weiner didn’t commit adultery..."
Jesus would not agree with you on this, that's for sure.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf we're to hold all politicians to Jesus' standard, we will have no politicians
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd we'd be left with [[[gasp]]] representatives, senators, and presidents instead of politicians.
Your suggestion is an excellent start.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd your comment displays a lack of familiarity with biblical concepts and basic human nature.
No man can match Jesus' standard. Anyone arguing that we hold that standard for government figures is in effect arguing for anarchy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor crying out loud, no one said anyone needs to be Jesus. The commenter stated that, according to Jesus and contrary to what another poster said, Weiner indeed committed adultery.
Appropriate Captcha phrase: have an inkling
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThanks Hardcastle. I guess some of the other posters here are perfectly content with what Mark Steyn accurately descibes as "this country’s depraved political class."
Well, I'm not content with that political class, and I'm not satisfied with the concept that we should encourage everyone to wallow in their own muck and make that wallowing an example. Its clear to me that we are all fallen, but that is no excuse to be proud of the fact, or to accept degenerates as our members of Congress.
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